At Minding The Campus, Brooklyn College history professor KC Johnson presents the devastating critiques, from venues venerated by the left, of leftist Brooklyn College Political Science professor Corey Robin's book about conservatives.
As KC Johnson concludes:
Fifty years ago, academics frequently migrated in and out political life. Now, with the exceptions of a handful of fields (data-dependent economics; faculty from schools of law, business, or medicine, whose curricula are set in part by forces outside the academy), it's all but inconceivable to imagine professors whose views reflect the basic assumptions of their respective disciplines serving in responsible government positions. Indeed, with occasional exceptions (such as political scientists Brendan Nyhan or Jonathan Bernstein), it's hard to imagine academics outside of economics, the law, and medicine having much interesting to say about politics.
I suspect that most members of the majority viewpoint on today's campuses are willing to make the trade, firming up their power within the academy in exchange for losing virtually all influence in the public square. Whether society benefits from this exchange is another matter.
I nominated Corey Robin for leftist quote of the day. In short, Robin is a bird too commonly found in the professorate of US colleges.
